Durability

Writing of Fanni Mészáros, representative of APPLiA Hungary Society

Whenever I go to a conference or participate in an interview, but even during friendly conversations, the question arises as to how durable our household machines are today. Conspiracy theories arise about planned obsolescence, intentional defects built into the appliances during production, followed by notes like “as we all know,” or “today it’s clear now,” “It is common knowledge today.”

Before we begin to contemplate this matter, we must first point out three very important things:

so far, no evidence has been shown that a manufacturer of a household appliance deliberately misled consumers this way;

the industry alliance, both the international organization, APPLiA Europe and the Hungarian organization, APPLiA Hungary, would condemn if any manufacturer would turn to such practices;

APPLiA Europe and APPLiA Hungary cannot deal with the business policy, and the manufacturing and market practices of individual manufacturers, because it falls outside their scope (so they cannot and will not advocate criticism and consumer complaints about specific devices).

However, since this topic is indeed almost constantly in the focus of interest today, I would invite you to share a common reflection on the subject from here on, promising to leave the final judgment to you!